The Art Of Happiness: February 2013

Friday, February 22, 2013

50 SHADES OF GRAY?Four guys have been going to the same fishing trip for many years.
Two days before the group is to leave, Ron's wife puts her foot down and tells him he isn't going.

Ron's mates are very upset that he can't go, but what can they do.
Two days later the three get to the camping site to find Ron sitting there with a tent set up, firewood gathered, and dinner cooking on the fire, sitting having a cold beer.
"Shit Ron, how long you been here, and how did you talk your missus into letting you go?"
"Well, I've been here since last night.
Yesterday evening, I was sitting in my living room chair and my wife came up behind me and put her hands over my eyes and asked, 'Guess who?"
I pulled her hands off, and there she was, wearing a nightie.
She took my hand and pulled me into our bedroom. The room had candles and rose petals all over.
Well she's been reading 50 Shades of Grey......
On the bed she had handcuffs, and ropes! She told me to tie her up and cuff her to the bed, so I did.
And then she said, "Do whatever you want."So, Here I am!

via my friend Kenton Pass.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

How To Unleash Blessings In Your Life and Others

This is an amazing time to be alive. We are blessed with so very much. Believing this can be difficult. It is sometimes difficult to view the problems and despair around us and not become discouraged. I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness.

In reviewing my life, I have made some discoveries. One is that countless experiences I have had were not necessarily those one would consider extraordinary. In fact, at the time they transpired they often seemed unremarkable and even ordinary as ordinary could be. And yet, in retrospect, they enriched and blessed lives not the least of which was my own. In your life you have been thrust into undeserved circumstances and maladies. You have cherished life and others. You have been faithful. Perhaps you lost a cherished job or divorced after expending your best efforts. Hear this; your best days are before you. Someone somewhere wants you right now. You are a miracle to so many people.

I would recommend this same exercise to you that you take an inventory of your life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received.

Tell me how you're feeling. If you've been helped by this article please leave a comment that can help others or repost to Facebook or Twitter. Thank you. Jim

Thursday, February 14, 2013

This Video Will Open Your Eyes - What Life Would You Live If Money Were No Object?

What would you like to do if money were no object? How would your life change if you lost weight? What if you won your battle over depression? What if you appreciated the love of your life more? You can! I'll help you. Contact me after you've watched this short video. I'll be with you every step of the way. Jim

20 Gentle Quotations from Mister Rogers

In times of tragedy, we look to teachers for guidance and hope. I can think of no better teacher than Fred McFeely Rogers, better known to us as Mister Rogers–our friendly neighbor–for his gentle wisdom on children, humility, grief, and the specialness of every person. Many of these quotations are collected in the posthumous volume The World According to Mister Rogers, though they come from various sources, including his many television appearances.

1. On Heroes Without Capes
“When I was very young, most of my childhood heroes wore capes, flew through the air, or picked up buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But as I grew, my heroes changed, so that now I can honestly say that anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 501-503).

2. On Sharing Responsibility
“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
Spoken in 1994, quoted in his obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

3. From a PSA Following September 11, 2001

If you grew up with our Neighborhood, you may remember how we sometimes talked about difficult things. There were days … even beautiful days … that weren’t happy. In fact, there were some that were really sad.
Well, we’ve had a lot of days like that in our whole world. We’ve seen what some people do when they don’t know anything else to do with their anger.
I’m convinced that when we help our children find healthy ways of dealing with their feelings–ways that don’t hurt them or anyone else–we’re helping to make our world a safer, better place.
I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are.
And what’s more, I’m so grateful to you for helping the children in your life to know that you’ll do everything you can to keep them safe and to help them express their feelings in ways that will bring healing in many different neighborhoods.
Also, regarding the anniversary of the attacks: “[Children] don’t understand what an anniversary is, and if they see the tragedy replayed on television, they might think it’s happening at that moment.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 596-606) and as quoted in his obituary.

Getty Images

4. On What We Do
“What matters isn’t how a person’s inner life finally puts together the alphabet and numbers of his outer life. What really matters is whether he uses the alphabet for the declaration of a war or the description of a sunrise–his numbers for the final count at Buchenwald or the specifics of a brand-new bridge.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 621-623).

5. On Looking for the Helpers

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers–so many caring people in this world.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 645-647).

6. On Helping
“I hope you’re proud of yourself for the times you’ve said ‘yes,’ when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to somebody else.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 390-391).

7. On Pain
“There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Location 389).

8. On Accepting Our Feelings
“There’s no ‘should’ or ‘should not’ when it comes to having feelings. They’re part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 131-133).

9. On “Disabilities”
“Part of the problem with the word disabilities is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can’t feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren’t able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 142-146).

From Koko.org

10. On Facing Sadness and Anger
“Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 111-114).

11. On Love
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Location 214).

12. On Humanity’s Intrinsic Value
“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has–or ever will have–something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 463-465).

14. On American History
“A high school student wrote to ask, ‘What was the greatest event in American history?’ I can’t say. However, I suspect that like so many ‘great’ events, it was something very simple and very quiet with little or no fanfare (such as someone forgiving someone else for a deep hurt that eventually changed the course of history). The really important ‘great’ things are never center stage of life’s dramas; they’re always ‘in the wings.’ That’s why it’s so essential for us to be mindful of the humble and the deep rather than the flashy and the superficial.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 496-500).

15. On Life Not Being Cheap
In February of 1999, Fred Rogers was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. This is an excerpt from his speech (emphasis added).

Fame is a four-letter word; and like tape or zoom or face or pain or life or love, what ultimately matters is what we do with it.
I feel that those of us in television are chosen to be servants. It doesn’t matter what our particular job, we are chosen to help meet the deeper needs of those who watch and listen–day and night!
The conductor of the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl grew up in a family that had little interest in music, but he often tells people he found his early inspiration from the fine musicians on television.
Last month a thirteen-year-old boy abducted an eight-year-old girl; and when people asked him why, he said he learned about it on TV. ‘Something different to try,’ he said. ‘Life’s cheap; what does it matter?’
Well, life isn’t cheap. It’s the greatest mystery of any millennium, and television needs to do all it can to broadcast that … to show and tell what the good in life is all about.
But how do we make goodness attractive? By doing whatever we can do to bring courage to those whose lives move near our own–by treating our ‘neighbor’ at least as well as we treat ourselves and allowing that to inform everything that we produce.
Who in your life has been such a servant to you … who has helped you love the good that grows within you? Let’s just take ten seconds to think of some of those people who have loved us and wanted what was best for us in life–those who have encouraged us to become who we are tonight–just ten seconds of silence.
[Ten seconds elapse.]
No matter where they are–either here or in heaven–imagine how pleased those people must be to know that you thought of them right now.
We all have only one life to live on earth. And through television, we have the choice of encouraging others to demean this life or to cherish it in creative, imaginative ways.
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Locations 540-558).

16. On Peace
“Peace means far more than the opposite of war!”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Location 613).

17. On Solitude
“Solitude is different from loneliness, and it doesn’t have to be a lonely kind of thing.”
From The World According to Mister Rogers (Kindle Location 158).
Read the full story via mentalfloss.com

IMPROVE YOUR RESULTS. Achieve Career and Personal Goals Faster With Jim Woods Coaching. With a clear understanding of human behavior and the reasons why you do what you do, you will be in a unique position to improve your own results in any area of your life - whether it's at home, in your career, your health, or your finances. Register for your free session to change your life now >>

Merry Valentine - The secret to desire in a long-term relationship - Video

Before you dismiss this video as only a Valentines Day diatribe or fodder for momentary foreplay, bear in mind, Esther masterfully delves into human behavior. What makes us ultimately happy? What propels us to be hunters and gatherers. Because, in the end, there is a reason we work and marry. Watch this with a loved if possible. By the way, her comment on foreplay has a customer experience connection as well. No, seriously. Jim

via youtube.com

“The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected.”
“It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.”
“Being tolerant does not mean that I share another one’s belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another one’s right to believe, and obey, his own conscience.”
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.”
“Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality.”
“A human being is a deciding being.”
“What is to give light must endure burning.”
“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
“Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”
“What is to give light must endure burning.”
“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”
“For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”
“A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how.”
“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life… Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.”
“The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom.”
“We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: 1. By doing a deed; 2. By experiencing a value; and 3. By suffering.”
“We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation–just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer–we are challenged to change ourselves.”
“Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.”
“The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes”
“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”